When the Poachers Came
by Petalsplash
Summary: Spottedpaw tells of what happened before the ThunderClan patrol found her by the Thunderpath, what her life was like, and what happened to make it all crash down on her. This is Spottedpaw's story.


**Some people asked me how Spottedkit got in the monster and what her background is, and I realized, I didn't really plan any of that. So I decided to make a short story on Spottedpaw before she was found by Thunderclan. This will be different from The LeopardClan Warrior, as this is written is first-person perspective. Enjoy!**

* * *

**When the Poachers Came**

I don't remember much about when the twolegs came, or pink-skins, as we called them. It all happened so suddenly, it took a couple days to sink in. But I'll never forget how horrified Mama was.

We lived on what was called a "reserve." Our den sights were a large hollow tree and a cave near the top of a mountain. We were staying in the cave that day, and my brother, Aruin, and I were wrestling. Meanwhile, my other brother, Boka, occupied himself with a beetle. I was called Mika. Mama announced she was going hunting, so she could catch something better than that pitiful hare the four of us had to share last time.

We followed Mama's rules; be quiet, stay in place, don't make yourself seen, but it didn't matter. They came anyway. Mama called them poachers.

They saw my dark golden pelt and Aruin's pale golden one first, but Boka's black coat blended with the shadows perfectly. But when one of the poachers grabbed Aruin's scruff, Boka made the fatal mistake of jumping out of hiding to defend his brother.

I could see the terrible creature's eyes lighting up as it spotted Boka's rare coloring. He quickly snatched Boka up and shoved him into a small, web-like confinement. The other one followed suit, and soon Aruin was stuffed in the same object with Boka. I attempted to run away and save myself, but when the cold paws clasped my scruff, I was forced to go limp. But before I got stuffed in the confinement with my brothers, I let out one last desperate screech.

"Mama!"

My mother burst through the cave entrance, a ferocious snarl leaving her lips. Aruin's eyes lit up with delight, but so did the poacher's. One of them pulled out a shiny black stick, and suddenly, after a sharp sound, Mama collapsed.

"Mama!" Boka cried. I barely heard him. I just stared, my eyes filling with tears. Mama was shoved into a confinement all by herself. She looked so lonely. I felt a rough tongue lick my ears, and I blinked my appreciation to Aruin. Boka was just curled up in the corner. None of us muttered a word.

* * *

I must've nodded off with Aruin licking me because, when I blinked open my eyes, it was a whole different setting. I could hear Boka snoring in the corner, but Aruin was sitting, wide awake and alert. I felt a yawn part my jaws as I observed my surroundings. There was a dark sheet covering me and my brothers' confinement, but it easily let in light, if there were any light to be let in. The ground would occasionally rock, making me nauseous.

"Still-bird," Aruin muttered.

"What?" I wondered.

"We're in a still-bird," Aruin answered.

I remembered seeing bird-like shapes from when I climbed our tree den, but they never flapped their wings like normal birds, and they were always very loud. Mama told me that they always travel great distances, but they'll never land in our home. Home. Mama. Those words mean nothing to me now.

"Where are we going?" I asked Aruin.

"I don't know," he replied.

I lied back down and wrapped my tail around my face.

"It could be worse," Aruin reasoned.

"How?" I demanded.

"At least Mama's alive."

At Aruin's words, I felt my heart soar as I leaped to my feet.

"But she got hit by the black stick!" I protested.

"It was a different kind of stick. I saw her ears twitch and her tail flick before we got put in this pit in the still-bird," Aruin explained.

"She's on the other side of this pit now," he added. I nudged Boka.

"Boka!" I whispered. Boka groaned. I figured the only way to get his attention was to cut to the chase.

"Mama's alive!" I told him. Boka just shook me off.

"Mika, we all want Mama to be alive, but she got hit by a black stick. And you know as well as I do that no leopard or leopardess can survive that," Boka grimly informed me.

"Boka? Mika? Aruin?" a voice called from across the dark pit.

"Mama?!" Boka called. I had probably never had been happier ever in my short life, but that happiness wasn't meant to last. The still-bird started tilting, and I and my siblings' confinement was slowly, then quickly, sliding forward. My ears started to feel horrible. I tried to cover them with my paws, but they didn't help muffle it at all. I could tell my brothers were having the same problem, by how much Aruin was shaking, and how Boka tried to make his voice match the pitch of the pain.

Suddenly, our confinement crashed into something, and I yelped. But when a wet tongue licked my ears, I felt a purr rise in my throat.

"Shhh. It's okay Mika, it's okay," Mama soothed.

"I love you, Mama," I mewed, looking into her golden-green eyes. Little did I know, that would be the last time I would get to say that.

* * *

After what seemed like forever, light shed into the dark pit. Not a promising sign. I could feel Boka stiffen, and a low growl come from Aruin's throat. The pink-skin grabbed the handles on me and Mama's confinements, and set us down, rather roughly, onto the ground. The poacher pink-skin who caught me started talking with a different pink-skin, one I haven't seen before. The new pink-skin pointed at Mama and Boka, and passed the poacher a small, thin, green object, as an evil smirk spread across the poacher's face. The poacher pointed to Aruin and me questioningly, and the new pink-skin came over to us.

The pink-skin opened the confinement, and reaching with a rough paw, he grabbed my scruff. I hissed, and he glared disapprovingly. I tried to bat his face, but he put me back with my brothers before I had the chance. He then did the same to Aruin, and his reaction to the pink-skin was much different. Aruin was frozen with fear, a high-pitched sound coming from him. The new pink-skins eyes lit up, and again, he handed the poacher more of that thin green stuff.

He didn't set Aruin back with me, but put him with Mama. Boka was put with Mama too, and just as the poacher was about to grab me, the new pink-skin shook his head. The poacher shrugged, and put me back in my cage, by myself.

"Mama!" I squealed.

"Why aren't they taking me with you?"

Mama didn't reply, but the despaired look in her eyes told me it all. _They don't want me._

As I was put in the back of a white monster, and my family in a red one, and they started heading in opposite directions, the reality fell on me. I will never see my family again. Never feel a mother's warm tongue lull me to sleep, never playfight with a littermate. I was truly, utterly, alone.

* * *

I've been imagining what my end will be like. Whether it will be at the end of a black stick, thrown in a river, or put in the wild with no food or protection, I thought of them all, really. I snuggled in my soft cover, hoping it wouldn't expose my scratches from the web-like bars to infection. My confinement would occasionally jerk, rocking me all over the back of the monster. I glanced through the webbing, and saw a bird I didn't recognize soaring above me.

_Relish your freedom, _I told it.

_It might not always last._

Suddenly, I felt the monster take a sharp turn, the new path very rocky, making my confinement slide around like crazy. Glancing out, I saw that the poacher was heading for a bright lake, the water sparkling in the sunlight.

_Drowning in a lake. So that will be my demise._

Up ahead, there was a old pink-skin nest, with vines growing all over it. The monster was really bumpy now, since there was a lot of holes in the path.

_Crack. _

Without warning, the back of the monster suddenly opened. Slowly, I was sliding to it, getting closer and closer to the edge. I was about to yell for help, but then I remembered there would be no one to hear my cries. I jumped, attempting to bring myself back up, but it didn't make a difference. I was falling. I guess drowning in a lake wouldn't be my end, but starving in the wild.

I flew out of the back of the monster, a yelp stuck in my throat. I landed with a hard thump on the ground, knocking the wind out of me. Catching my breath, I observed my surroundings. Well, I tried to. All I could see was dust.

A shadow loomed over me, and I crouched under my cover, in hope the potential predator wouldn't notice me. The shape came closer, and I felt its warm breath on my back.

"Dovewing?" a voice called from outside the dust cloud. _I can understand them?_

"You have to come see this!" the shape replied. I crouched lower.

Three more shapes gathered around me, and I tried to prevent the fur on my back from rising.

A different shape said, "It's a cage. Squirrelflight told me stories of when she had to rescue Leafpool from one of these things."

"I don't care what it is," the first one retorted.

"I care about what's in it."

I probably never crouched lower in my life.

"It's a kit!" the first shape explained.

_Kit?_

A fifth shape ran up, and he and the other talked a little bit, but I covered my ears, trying to calm myself down.

Poking out an ear, I could hear a voice ask, "Can you open it?"

My blood turned to ice.

"I think so," came the reply.

The creature talked some more with the others as it set to work to open my "cage."

With a pop, the entrance slowly creaked open.

_Please let this be a nightmare please let this be a nightmare,_ I chanted.

One of the shapes poked its head in my cage. Without thinking, I stretched my claws forward and scratched the creature's nose. It jumped back, and pawed at its nose, and warned the others, "Whatever it is, it has claws!"

"Maybe you should try a gentler approach," one of them suggested.

_Yeah, right._

It stood just outside the entrance and said, "Hi, my name is Dovewing. My friends and I don't want to hurt you."

I made up my mind to reply. "Do you have milk?" I wondered as my stomach rumbled. Dovewing looked surprised that I responded, but she replied anyway.

"I don't have milk, but I know someone who does. Are you a lost kit?"

_What's a kit?_

"I don't know, but I want milk!" I repeated.

"If you come out, I can take you to milk," Dovewing offered.

I hesitated. They didn't sound like they had any intention of harming me. Plus, I couldn't just stay here forever, and I highly doubted they would go away.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to risk it all. On wobbly legs, I stepped out.

* * *

The creatures turned out to be cats, which are like leopards, but smaller, and usually not spotted. The golden one, who introduced himself as Lionblaze, carried me back to "camp," which I assumed was like some sort of den. He talked with a ginger she-cat Squirrelflight, and she brought me to what they called, "the nursery." I thought it must be safe, judging by the milk smell coming from it.

A striped gray queen, who I soon found out was called Cinderheart, was nursing three small cubs, or kits, as they called them. Squirrelflight set me down, and meowed to the queen, "Will you nurse this kit until Bramblestar decides what to do with it?"

_'Decides what to do with it?' That sounds promising._

But the smell of the queen's milk was tantalizing. I hobbled over to the queen, and snuggled in between a striped black one and a cream-and-brown one and found a place to suckle. The queen didn't stop me.

"She can stay here until Bramblestar makes his choice," she decided.

At that moment, I was relieved. I didn't let the feeling settle in though, in fear of being sent away. But when Bramblestar announced I could stay and my new name, I felt a whole new hope open up to me. When I was taken away from my family, I thought I would never be able to love again, let alone live. But in this Clan, I have a whole new life, and a bunch of new friends.

Of course I miss my family. I don't plan on forgetting them.

But, I am no longer Mika.

I am Spottedpaw.

* * *

***sniffs* I got a little teary writing the end. Yeah, little Spottedpaw's growing up so fast. *blows nose with tissue***

**And what happened to Mama, Boka, and Aruin at the end is up to your imagination.**

**What did you guys think?**


End file.
